Karpathos is the second largest of the Greek
Dodecanese islands, in the southeastern
Aegean Sea. Together with the neighboring smaller
Saria Island it forms the municipality of Karpathos, which is part of the
Karpathos regional unit. Because of its remote location, Karpathos has preserved many peculiarities of dress, customs and dialect, the last resembling those of
Crete and
Cyprus. The island has also been called Carpathus in
Latin, Scarpanto in
Italian and Kerpe in
Turkish.